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I’ve missed this. It’s been a while since I have posted and I am looking forward to writing and sharing some things here! Finding time to keep up with blogging is difficult, but I recently had a surgery that has forced me to rest. So, silver lining, folks!

In March we enjoyed lots of celebrations:

A beach birthday party for one of our favorite 12 year olds

Started two very different, but very good novels: Landline and The Nightingale

Went to dinner and a Jose Gonzales concert with one of our favorite couples ever

Spanish themed Cooking Club – I made olive tapenade toast and mushrooms sautéed in garlic and white wine

Spike ball Sunday

My mom came to visit from Idaho! We had a beach day, watercolor night, Community Group, and dinner together at Benihana (her first time hehe).

In May we enjoyed:

Bret traveled with one of our Pastors to Reno for an Acts 29 Conference

Primos tacos and gelato with our Community Group

Date Night at Target and The Flying Pig

Mother’s Day dinner at my oldest and best girlfriend’s house

Book Club meeting for The Nightingale with the best french food spread ever

Said goodbye to the palm tree outside our front door…I loved that thing

8th Grade Graduation party with our Jr. High kids – SO fun!

Lofty Coffee with Jocey

In home massages (late Christmas present for Bret)

Memorial Day appreciation and BBQ with friends

Something else that happened in March and is just now beginning to wrap up is an unexpected health update. My GP looked at my neck back in March and she thought my thyroid gland looked enlarged. She ordered an ultrasound which revealed that my thyroid was normal size but they could see there was a mass growing on the right side. I was then sent to a specialist. He did a biopsy and recommended I get it removed due to its large size. The biopsy came back a few weeks later as negative – PRAISE THE LORD! But I still had to consider surgery. I felt the most peace with moving forward with surgery and I am sure glad God directed me that way. Just this last week, they removed the mass and the Doctors laughed to each other when my husband asked how big it was. They said, “That thing was impressive!” So the mass is gone, it’s not cancerous, and I still have most of my thyroid intact. Recovery isn’t fun, but I am so grateful for God putting good doctors around me and for helping me to get healthy. I’m also so grateful for all the people who have prayed for me – God heard all of those prayers. And for those who have brought me flowers and food and cards and blessed me with your company. THANK YOU SO MUCH. My body is in pain but my heart is full.

Until next month…I hope you enjoyed hearing about “our full life” over the last few months.

I do have to admit…June looked pretty fabulous. And it was! But don’t let me fool you. It had it’s hard moments too. Really hard, actually.
I will be writing more about that this week. I am going through a season that I know a lot of people face, but it’s new to me and hard to walk through.

We are already 6 days into July and I’m taking pictures getting reading for the next full life month. I’m sporadic, but sticking around. I am SO grateful and give many thanks to you faithful readers. Much love!

Slacker! Yup, that’s me. Summer has been a wonderful season of busy. Please enjoy our full weekS!

Sourdough six grain raisin bread.

Milkshakes and smiles with this girl. ❤ Praying for Katherine everyday. She is 14 years old and just had her second brain surgery to remove a tumor that keeps growing. Praying for the tumor to be gone, safety, successful proton therapy, wise doctors, complete healing, and for her heart to stay strong and at peace. We are all trusting in God and have hope in his glory.

Blog burn-out. This is what happens to me when life is sad, confusing, and hard. I don’t feel like writing and sharing as I normally do. I know there is probably others out there that can relate.

If you read my last blog post you saw that my sweet student Katherine was really in a scary place with an intensive brain surgery and threat of brain cancer.

I felt like I couldn’t live life normally. My days felt sad. I wanted to hit rewind before all this happened. Still, I believed God is good. We were all waiting on Him. Here is some incredible news her father shared with us:

“The oncologists called back…and here is what we learned. The mass was so unique, it shows up in less than one in a million, that they sent it to the top clinic in Boston for a second opinion. They are actually going to write an article on it. We are praising God that it’s not malignant. It was some sort of vascular malformation that they don’t even have a name for yet. We are rejoicing over this news! Thank you for your prayers! Please keep praying for her full recovery. They will continue to do MRIs on her, the next one in three months, to monitor her head, but they are projecting a full recovery. When Katherine got the news that it was not cancerous and the prognosis was good for a full recovery, she couldn’t stop smiling. Tonight when I prayed with her before bed, she actually thanked God for using this to grow her faith and trust in God. Wow! The first thing she wants to do when she’s all better is to go surfing.“

Amazing amazing news. I was blown away and brought to tears. Our God is absolutely in control and deeply loves us! It was a joy to hear of her smiling. I love that smile! Now we continue to pray and lean on God for the days to come.

Here is a glance at what the past couple of weeks looked like for us.

Work errands at Crate & Barrel. Sometimes work errands are awesome.

Visiting this sweetheart was a blessing. Her hope in God is inspiring and profound.

Burritos & Bowling!!! Our girls definitely missed Katherine.

Porch-sitting in my new sun dress. Enjoying the heat. Giant glass of ice water in hand.

My dad’s jungle of a backyard. I think I have taken pictures of it before…but it sure is growing!

Take me away.

Night time snack. So many textures.

Not my usual coffee order. Eliminating caffeine, sugar, and acid for a few weeks. Good thing I love all tea.

Parks & Recreation marathon last weekend. We love Lil’ Sebastian.

That’s about it everyone. I think I’m slowly coming back into the swing of things so hopefully you will hear from me more.

I wanted to leave you with some of the lessons Katherine’s father has been learning that we can all relate to.

Here are some lessons we learned, or relearned that I would like to pass on:

When Jesus says follow me, the story is about Him and not us. God has so graciously written us into that story, but it is His story.

Our sovereign God is a good God and He can be trusted, no matter what may happen.

He will always be walking with us, even if we are not walking faithfully with Him. It’s not so much that we are clinging to God, it’s that He holds on to us.

The trials we face are never wasted by God. Therefore, let’s make sure we don’t waste those either.

This is week seventeen. One I will never forget. It started like any other…quite enjoyable, in fact. However, it ended with suffering. Suffering that I wish I could just hit rewind on. Suffering that causes me to lean on God deeply in desperation. I will share more on that at the end of the post.

Prom? Bret and I spotted this public display and reminisced on High School days.

This is what God meant when he said that creation speaks of His glory.

Editing. Remembering Easter.

Bret’s off Fridays are my favorite. He suggested we use our giftcard to Vinaka. Yes!

Checking out a new dinner place: The Privateer. Coal Fired Pizza and other delicious eats.

Remember the beginning of my post when I mentioned suffering? I would love if you took a few moments to read where our hearts have been lately.

This last weekend was heart breaking. Our pastors’ beautiful and kind hearted daughter (one of the students in our Jr. High group) was faced with life changing news. What was thought to be a sinus infection turned out to be much different. After a CAT scan on Friday, neuro doctors informed the family that their daughter has a mass at the bottom right side of her brain (middle cranium fossa) that would need to be removed. This news was absolutely crushing and came the day before Katherine’s 14th Birthday.

While there was still a lot of questions to be answered and things to pray for (the mass to disappear, the doctors to be strong and capable, the surgery to go smoothly, the mass to be removed and not cancerous, life preserved in good quality, God glorified, and more), Katherine’s amazing parents still wanted her birthday to be special. SO, we made that happen! Katherine had her 14th Birthday in the hospital with some of her closest girlfriends. We decorated a waiting room, ate pizza, spent time with her, sang Happy Birthday, and spent time praying for her. She was tired and we could feel the sadness weighing on everyone, but ultimately God was present and Katherine was so blessed by the time we all spent together.

This was something her dad emailed us about where Katherine was at mentally with this heart breaking circumstance: “Katherine loves to play soccer and surf. She has always looked up to Bethany Hamilton. We watched Soul Surfer again last night before the surgery. She told her mom yesterday that perhaps God can use this situation to bring Him glory like He did with Bethany. I told her that God is already doing that!” What a blessing.

It has been so comforting to know that thousands of God’s people from around the world are desperately praying for this beloved family. We have been praying constantly and our hearts long for relief. If you would like to pray for this family, please do! Katherine had her surgery today and things went very well and she was sustained by the Lord. The Doctors removed what they could of the tumor and are waiting for more results. Here are some of the prayer requests:

That the doctors got all of the tumor out

That the remaining pain in her face/head will go away permanently

Speedy recovery

No cancer found in the removed mass

No infections or complications

long and full life ahead for this beautiful girl

This has been a heartbreaking and discouraging time. Deeply felt grieving, weeping, and aching. Even still, my pastor and his family are giving thanks to God for his grace and provision. They continue to worship the God who is always present. They hope people will see His glory through this.

If you have faced suffering in your own life, I am truly sorry. Your suffering is not something I or anything in this world can fix. Please hear this message on God in the Midst of Suffering and see that there really truly is hope and rescue.

What have we been up to lately? Lots. Jr. High Ministry, community groups, hosting events, Seminary for Bret, birthdays, and keeping our marriage a priority.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I miss writing. I most definitely miss documenting “Our Full Life,” and the events God involves us in. Please enjoy these photos. I hope they inspire you to live abundantly – in love, in community, and in His beautiful creation.

I have never used the coffee grinders at Costco before. I liked it!

Date Night at Miguel’s. Their white sauce is out of control. We each ask for our own.

BOXED in Carlsbad makes breakfast waffle sandwiches out of their food truck. They are so good! This one has crunchy PB & strawberry jelly and Bret’s had scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheddar.

We had a Jr. High girls sleepover last week. We had a station for make-up, nail polish, hair, and face masks. They had such a wonderful time. They looked like they were heading to homecoming!